My Take: Another tragedy in our town

Wednesday

Jan 15, 2014 at 2:00 PM

A column by managing editor Jason Hunsicker.

Jason Hunsicker @JHunsicker_KDE @jhunsicker_kde

The first full week of January has been a sad one in the Kirksville area, the second straight year our community has been struck by tragedy at this time. It's a disturbing thought. Not yet a trend, but disturbing.

I didn't know Kadie Campbell Johnson well at all. My interactions with her were limited to perhaps one or two phone conversations regarding cases she was handling. I didn't know her husband, Riley Johnson, at all. Nor do I know their children, Avery, Corbin or Owen.

Still, despite not knowing this family, I've spent the week feeling sad, almost a sense of loss, after news Sunday that Kadie Campbell Johnson and Riley Johnson were dead in a murder-suicide. To be clear, I am not suggesting I feel anything remotely close to the pain their family members and close friends are feeling. I can't begin to imagine. I've experienced the loss of loved ones in my life, but not like this. It's difficult to fathom the nightmare they must be confronting every day.

My sorrow stems from many areas, perhaps foremost the fact that three small children are involved. They were in the house when their parents died. They will now know a world in which they no longer have a mother or father. I doubt they've come to grips with the reasons why. So young, I shudder at the thought that they have. I shudder again at the thought of them having to do so sometime down the road.

These kinds of things are impossible for many of us to understand. I suppose it's categorized as "domestic violence," but even that terrible designation doesn't seem to do it justice.

Every couple is different. Every couple defines arguments differently. Every couple has arguments differently, and so long as violence and mental abuse are not involved, they are often a byproduct of healthy, happy relationships that so many of us enjoy. It's difficult for us to see where that line is, where an argument turns violent, or even deadly, and that makes it so hard to comprehend.

I wish there was some kind of an answer, something we could propose that would prevent this kind of thing from happening ever again. But there's not. So long as violence and passion and the means to do harm exist, so to will these kinds of tragedies.

All we can do is hope for the best, offer support, and come together to make sure these children know they are loved, and that this tragedy does not need to define them.